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So haven’t gotten round to this till now but had a hectic, manic, mental few days for Blue October’s Any Man In America tour in the UK on the 3rd and 4th of November. For some still unknown reason the sis decided to book the earliest flight over to London on the Thursday so we were up at 4am! Early mornings are not my favourite so I was fairly grumpy having added to the fact work was very stressful that week leading to sleepness nights and stressful days so I wasn’t in great form to begin with! It also didn’t help that sis is at her chirpiness in the mornings and added to the excitement of seeing her favourite band, she was positively hyper and unbelieveably chatty! We stayed in the Swinton Hotel on Swinton Street near Kings Cross. That’s just say it was clean and functional and relatively close to the venue! We were meeting up with some fellow Blue fans. One brave Scottish lassie came on her own so we met her at the hotel and headed to the O2 Academy in Islington via Kings Cross!
Thankfully the venue is attached to a large shopping centre with cover while we queued which was just as well considering it was bucketing down. We met another Scottish clan there and the originals – Mr Strong and his lovely family. We had tickets for the soundcheck and a meet and greet with the band. I have to say if they were giving prizes for venues, Islington’s O2 Academy would be a sure winner. I’ve never been anywhere where the staff were so nice and helpful and with the bonus of cover while you wait outside. The Staff handed out water and were so polite. We had to go outside and queue again when the meet and greet was over. By then, the breakfast we had in the airport seemed a long time ago and two of the Scots made a food run to Sainsbury’s so we had sandwiches, cookies and coke to refuel.
No Crowdsurfing
Once we got in, we were lucky enough to be front and central. I’m loving the new album and seeing it live made me love it even more. Especially some of the songs that I wasn’t sure about on the album like The Flight and Any Man In America are truly stunning live. The album itself is very personal to Justin and deals with his custody battle for his daughter and his break down of his relationship and is so honest. Seeing him perform live you can feel the emotion with every song which is why their live shows are so powerful. Afterwards we headed to a pub across the road glad to be able to sit down and who should come in for a post-show beer only Jeremy, the drummer, who was as polite and friendly as ever. The landlord told us the whole band had come there the night before to kick off their European tour in style.
We had a lovely breakfast in the hotel – have to say they do an excellent deal for bed and breakfast – it may not be five star but it’s good value for money. Then we made our way to the train station after saying our goodbyes to Mr Strong and family who were heading home. We got there in plenty of time and our Scottish daddy checked out the platform number so we had coffee and chats before deciding five minutes to go to head down to the platform. Only to arrive and be told it was a different train and our actual train was due to leave in 5 minutes and so began the mad train dash which would have been funny if we didn’t have starring roles. Of course the platform was the other end of the station! All I can remember is the dazed ‘deer stuck in headlights’ expression on our faces and running as fast as our legs could carry us. Arrived when the conductor was blowing the whistle and shouting ‘this train leaves on time with or without you’, we launched ourselves onto the first available carriages red-faced, and hyperventilating. Of course it happened to be first class so we had to walk the length of the train looking for our reserved seats. Boy were we glad to have made it. We can laugh about it now!!
So onwards to Birmingham which was only an hour or so away and once our little hearts went back to normal, the journey flew by and before long the famous bullring, a huge shopping mall, was in sight. We were meeting another brave soul who was also coming on her own. We met in a pub in the station before heading to the bullring to grab some food. After the previous day surviving on breakfast and sandwiches just wasn’t enough! We all hopped into a taxi to take us to the ibis hotel in Holloway Circus which was close to the venue, O2 Academy. It literally couldn’t be any closer, it was practically next door. It was like a motel with the rooms all located off the carpark and it was ridiculously cheap.
The venue had three different gigs that night so it was extremely busy. We were supposed to be doing another meet and greet but the band were delayed in traffic so they decided to let us in for the soundcheck and do the meet and greet after so as not to delay as the venue had a curfew of 9.30! The long queuing process was helped along by funny faces [the Scottish started it] and general hilarity. The stage was tiny and there wasn’t room for the roadie whose job was made harder by the fact he had to jump on stage to fix leads and change guitars! Even with the fact they were late and looked a bit hassled and there were some technical issues and the stage was tiny, for some reason that gig was the better of the two. The set list was the same both nights and had a good mix of both old and new. Afterwards, we queued to meet the band and get photos taken. Can’t believe that was my sixth time seeing them in two years! It was still raining so we headed back to the ibis hotel bar for post-show drinks and lots of fun. It was another ungodly start the next morning with a 5am wake up call to the airport! So to all the Blue fans who made this UK trip special and you know who ye are – the Scottish clan [Scottish mammy, Scottish daddy and of course baby Scot Leith McTeeth]; brave Scottish lass, Squirrel and of course Mr Strong and family – remember we’ll always have Blue!
The Largest Book Give-Away Ever Attempted!
The inaugural World Book Night will take place on Saturday, 5 March 2011, two days after World Book Day! It is intended to celebrate books and encourage reading. A growing list of high-profile figures from publishing, media and the arts are lending their support to this ambitious initiative by becoming Patrons of World Book Night including Damon Albarn, Dave Eggers, Colin Firth, David Gilmour, Antony Gormley, Seamus Heaney, Damien Hirst, Nigella Lawson, Mary Portas, J.K. Rowling and Tilda Swinton.
Jamie Byng, Chairman, World Book Night says: “World Book Night is a unique collaboration between publishers, booksellers, libraries, writers and individual members of the public and one that I think is going to have an enormously positive impact on books and reading. There are few things more meaningful than the personal recommendation and having one million books given to one million different people on one night in this way is both unprecedented and hugely exciting.”
With the full support of the Publishers Association, the Booksellers Association, the Independent Publishers Guild, the Reading Agency with libraries, World Book Day and the BBC, one million books will be given away by an army of 20,000 passionate readers to members of the public across the UK and Ireland! And I am one of the lucky givers, the book I will be distributing is Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. I have decided to offer the first five to my blog readers so if you want a free book, send me your details by e-mail and I will post out the book to the lucky few. The rest will be distributed locally or I will be broke!
To get involved, you can check out their Facebook page.
World Book Night will take place on Saturday 5 March 2011 and will be broadcast in partnership with BBC Two.
A Million Books for Free: A Culture Show Special, BBC2 Saturday @ 7.30pm
Presented by Andrew Graham-Dixon, this half-hour film tells the story of World Book Night. The film follows the preparations for the night, as a million books are printed and distributed to 20,000 givers, who have volunteered to hand out 48 copies of their favourite book, which features on World Book Night’s list of selected titles. With 25 different books on the special list, there is something for everyone to enjoy, from Nigel Slater’s Toast and Seamus Heaney’s New Selected Poems to The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John le Carre. World Book Night is about sharing, through word of mouth, the pleasure of reading. In the film, famous and non-famous readers talk about the books they really love.
And for those lucky enough to live in London – there is a ticketed event in Trafalgar Square the night before hosted by Graham Norton. This event will be covered on BBC2, at which appearing on the night will be a great line up of well-known authors, actors and musicians who will be reading from books they love. Organisers said they expected an audience of around 10,000 people at what they described as “a glittering celebration of the written word”.
So the US get Big Bird (yes he is an icon, a big yellow childhood icon, oh bring back Sesame Street…Sunny Days, apparently Sesame Street is 40 years old!!!)
And the UK get Wallace & Gromit (created by animator Nick Parks, gotta love Shaun the sheep, apparently it’s their 20th birthday now that makes me feel old!!!)
And what do we Irish get only the regular old Google logo – Where is our cartoon iconic characters? Do we not deserve some Google fun on a wednesday morning? Surely some Irish cartoon character is celebrating a birthday or special anniversary. Am expecting better tomorrow Google.
We had Big Brother, now BT brings us a new social experiment, ‘the Experiment’ where the chosen guy or girl gets to live alone for the month of June in a purpose-built cube complete with phone, digital TV and internet access with the outside world watching.
You are the experiment. One Room, One Month and Just You.
They are looking “to find out how much you can play, watch, listen to, gossip, enjoy, experience, laugh, share and inspire in a month”. They are looking for someone with a vivid imagination, a playful personality and the ability to connect from afar.
More details can be found on their website:
http://btexperiment.com/
Girl from the Hills Blog 